Stuff

Oooooh my Secret Pal has been in touch! I've had an epostcard and a couple of emails and a comment on the blog! This is SO exciting. I've been in touch with the person I've spoiling too and had a reply from her/him. Now to start thinking of a shopping list... SP shopping is so much fun cos it doesn't matter if you're on a yarn diet as it doesn't count and I like spoiling someone else.

Sunday was a wildly exciting day. I cleaned the flat. Wow. Partly because there was nowhere left to sit and the floor couldn't be seen, and partly because I'm coughing a lot and I thought getting rid of some dust might help. And partly because I needed to re-sort out my stash as it's taking up quite a lot of room now.

Meanwhile, after talking to Denise at Knit Lincs on Saturday about the Year of Living Generously, I've signed up (again). Denise said she'd signed up a while ago (like me) and heard nothing so she'd signed up again and that got things moving. So I'm trying again.

Yesterday I worked out my Ecological Footprint (well I couldn't clean the flat ALL day, could I?!). Mine isn't TOO bad compared to the average for the UK, but it's still not good. My footprint is 3.8 global hectares, and the average here is 5.3. I'm going to have a think about how to reduce mine further, but it's difficult - I scored quite well for being vegetarian, not eating much processed/overly packaged food, hardly producing any rubbish and living in a small flat, which is also attached to another (ie better insulation). However I do travel about 450 miles a week, a third of that on public transport. There's not an awful lot I can change there, apart from eventually finding a job in one place and settling there. Neither can I up the proportion done on public transport due to various work-related factors. At least my car is small and fairly fuel efficient, although I do usually travel alone (again, due to work). One of my aims for this year is to move jobs, which would dramatically reduce my mileage and might make it more feasible to walk/use public transport/share lifts.

And I have some Charisma yarn!



You may remember from a while ago that Hazel gave me the balls she had left over which was enough to make the short version of a skirt in Simply Knitting. I was going to get some more of the yarn from Texere so I could make the long version, but Texere then sold out before I got my act together. The yarn came from a mill that has since closed. I put out emails on various lists and asked around and found Charisma Cashmere/Lambswool in every colour but the one I wanted. Then. Suddenly. About 10 days ago I found 10 balls of the right shade on Ebay. In Hong Kong. And I needed another 14 balls. So I emailed the seller who said that she had another 4 balls worth that she'd frogged from a project and she offered to include them if I won the auction. Which I did! So now I have all the yarn I need for the longer skirt! Woo hoo. :-)

Obviously this doesn't count in the yarn diet either as it's yarn I'd been looking for for a long time...